A LARGE crowd of worshippers gathered in Grange Park in Burley-in-Wharfedale on Sunday morning at a United Service marking the beginning of Burley Summer Festival Week.

Members of St Mary’s Parish Church, Salem URC Church, the Methodist Church and Catholic Church, and many visitors from the village and beyond, all came together to share in an uplifting time of prayer and praise, music and drama.

Although the morning had begun worryingly overcast and windy, the service finished in warm sunshine with more and more people coming to join in. The Rev Alistair Kirk led the service, assisted by Rev Jason MacCullagh of the URC Church. A member of St Mary’s Youth Group, Bradley Hardisty, read the lesson, the orchestra and St Mary’s Singers led the music, and there was a very relevant piece of drama based on the Olympics from the Methodist drama group. A moving account of the conditions in Syria, and particularly Aleppo, was given by Johnny, the proprietor of Pizza One in Burley, himself a Christian from Syria. He described how Aleppo was once a large, vibrant city with a huge pharmaceutical company employing thousands and one of the biggest suppliers to Asia, but now only 25 per cent of the city remains standing and the rest is in ruins, with water, light and food in extremely scarce supply. Johnny is working with a pastor based in Lebanon endeavouring to bring aid to those trapped inside Syria, and the collection which was taken up at the morning service will be donated to these efforts.

Following the service members of the URC Church provided wonderful refreshments, allowing people to remain behind and chat, catching up with old friends and making new ones, a fitting beginning to the start of Festival Week.